Women Rabbis

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SandySasso

Early in her career as the first female Reconstructionist rabbi, Sandy Sasso received an incredible vote of confidence from her mentor.

Sandy Sasso tells the story behind her most famous children's book and how it has reshaped people's ideas about Jewish tradition.

Sandy Sasso believes there are ways for parents to have conversations with their children about the big questions, even if they don't always have the answers.

While it's important for women to achieve equality, Sandy Sasso hopes to maintain a balance between male and female rabbis.

A Powerful Role Model

The Story of Noah's...

Speaking with Children...

Concerns About...

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The first woman rabbi ordained by the Reconstructionist movement, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso has used her career as an award-winning author to change how children and adults think about women in Jewish tradition. Sasso, who graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1974, had the added distinction of being half of the first rabbinic couple (with her husband, Rabbi Dennis Sasso) and the first rabbi to experience motherhood after the birth of her oldest child, David, in 1976. Sandy and Dennis Sasso became the joint leaders of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis in 1977, where Sandy served until her retirement in 2013. A prolific writer, Sasso has written a number of Jewish children’s books, winning Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Book of the Year Award for But God Remembered: Stories of Women from Creation to the Promised Land in 1995 and A Prayer for the Earth in 1996. She has also written resources for parents and a book on midrash. Sasso continues to work with her cohort of fellow first women rabbis from the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements, speaking about their experiences.